I suspect this week’s #WASO theme was intended for bloggers with the six week school summer holiday stretched out ahead of them. But it got me thinking about what has happened over the last six weeks and what may, or may not, happen in the next six…

The last six weeks have been tumultuous to say the least. There was obviously the Brexit result, which was a shock whichever way you voted. There’s been the political upheaval that ensued, including Labour MPs once again trying to oust Jeremy Corbin as party leader and the arrival of only our second female Prime Minister. There have also been atrocious terror attacks in the US, Iraq, Turkey, France and Germany, that make you wonder what kind of world we’ll be bringing our children up in. Even at the lighter end of the spectrum, the Euro matches in France brought little but misery (except for the fantastic Welsh display), with only Andy Murray’s efforts at Wimbledon introducing a shade of joy to proceedings.

In terms of work, I completed a huge eight-month project with the RSC that’s seen me working with children all over the UK and has been an absolute joy to work on; I started and finished a smaller project of my won that has been way more stressful but also very rewarding; and I’ve started the process of winding down my work commitments in readiness for fatherhood – eek!

I’ve ticked a few things off my #preadoptionbucketlist including an amazing afternoon at the Crystal Maze, a stunning lunch at The Pig in Brockenhurst, and as it was Tom’s birthday a few weeks ago, a delicious Champagne afternoon tea near where we live.

And most importantly, to us at least, we went to ﻿Panel﻿ and were approved to adopt – hurrah! You can read all about it here.

Today we’re in the New Forest and enjoying doing absolutely nothing. Over the last few days we’ve had lovely dinners, boozy lunches, and long relaxing breakfasts – not that I’m obsessed with food or anything. After I post this, I might go for a walk after breakfast (possible), have a nap after lunch (likely) and a G&T before dinner (definitely). If I’m feeling active I might go for a bike ride but let’s not be silly about things. And while this holiday has definitely been about us enjoying time together before the children arrive, we've continually talked about how they might enjoy a section of a bike-ride we've completed or a paddle in a stream we passed.

So coming up in the next six weeks I have work trips to Edinburgh and Oxford, an annual family camping trip (which again I can't wait to introduce our children to when they're ready), a weekend away in Berlin with Tom (another tick off our #preadoptionbucketlist), and I will be about to start what will (possibly) be my last big work project before the kids arrive.

But the thing that will most be on our minds is finding the children that will make our family. Since panel, we’ve scoured Link Maker and passed profiles we thought might be good matches on to Denise, our social worker, only to realise they are already matched or not quite right for us (or we them). And then, out of the blue, a social worker contacted Denise with a profile of two very cute children. We’re meeting their social worker in two weeks, which is wonderful, terrifying and suddenly very real. So in reality, the next six weeks will mostly be us waiting for emails and phone calls, reading and digesting tonnes of documents and reports, and desperately trying to contain our excitement. We know we’re a long way off and so much can go wrong but these are indeed exciting times.

And who knows, in six weeks’ time we may have a new leader of the Labour party, but I suspect we could be matched and well into parenthood before that happens…

Wow!! So exciting!!! We've just met with our social worker for the first time since panel and looked at profiles she's started pursuing for us. They all seemed great, but we had a definite favourite. So now we've got to wait for their social workers to respond. I'm not sure how we're supposed to sleep, or think, or breathe while we wait!!! Hope you have good news soon :-)

I've missed you at the weekend blog share! It sounds like you've had a good few weeks and have some more to look forward to. I'm so happy that you're meeting with the children's social worker soon a so hope it goes well! I'm off to catch up on what else I've missed

Reply

Leave a Reply.

Author

My husband and I have adopted two wonderful children. Duckling is 5 and Gosling, her little brother, is 3. I'll be keeping track of our journey here...